Democratic socialism is a contradiction in terms, it is a combination of two words that contradict each other.

Democracy and socialism, as socialism is currently known cannot go together, because the one cancels the other.

Because democracy gets destroyed in the very process of bringing socialism, this so-called socialism cannot be brought in without murdering democracy.

It is necessary to understand why democracy will have to go for socialism to come.

The first principle, the foundational principle of democracy is that it gives every individual person the freedom to live, to work, to earn, to produce and to own, use property and amass wealth from ones production.

It is one of the basic rights.

The next fundamental principle of democracy ordains that there should be no injustice to anyone.

Another basic principle of democracy says that the majority cannot subject the minority to any injustices.

Democracy means that even if there is a minority of one, the majority cannot subject it to injustices, and deprive it of any of its basic rights.

If the majority, whom the so-called socialism claims to speak and work for, uses democracy to destroy this minority, then it knocks out the very foundation of democracy.

And minorities change with time, today one group is in the minority, tomorrow another may take its place.

Now socialists say that wealth should be distributed, someone should not have more and others less, because wealth creates jealousy and bitterness.

But it is necessary to ask if it is justice that those who did not do a thing to produce wealth, who took no part whatsoever in its creation, who were just spectators, should now, when wealth is created, come forward and demand its distribution.

A handful of people have created wealth, but after it has been created, all those who have had no hand in its creation are claimants for a share in its ownership.

But this is not what democracy means.

Democracy means that the producers own their produce.

And if anyone distributes it, shares it with others, it is their pleasure.

Wealth is a creation of intelligence and talent.

Today socialists envy that intelligence, and say that wealth should be distributed equally.

In the same way, tomorrow we will say that we cannot tolerate that some people have beautiful partners while others have ugly ones.

We will say that this is inequality, it cannot be tolerated; everyone should have equal rights to beautiful partners.

We will not be wrong if we say that, because by the same logic, there is no difference at all.

And then the day after we will say that it is intolerable that a handful of people are intelligent while others are stupid.

That this too is inequality, we demand equal distribution of intelligence and talent.

It is the same logic that demands equal distribution of wealth.

But this whole approach is anti-democratic.

In fact, every person is different and unique.

Every person is born with distinct and different potentialities, and they will seek and develop their own potentialities, and they will create what they are born to create.

And as such they will own their creation.

And if they share it with others, they do so for their own joy.

We have no right to claim it, it would be grossly unjust.

Socialism, however, approves of many such injustices, because it is easy to win the majority in support of injustices.

But injustice will not become justice and a lie will not become truth just because the majority supports them.

Freedom to own private property is one of the fundamental human rights, and democracy accepts this right of the individual.

So when somebody says that socialism with democracy is possible, it is an outright lie.

Socialism violates the basic principle of democracy.

Democracy and socialism cannot go together.

The second thing is that socialism only talks of the great values, which make for the basis of its philosophy, but it cannot achieve them.

So it will be worthwhile if we go into some of these values at length.

Freedom is perhaps the greatest value in an individuals life.

There is no greater value than this, because freedom is foundational to the whole development of humanity.

That is why bondage or slavery is the worst state of human existence and freedom is its best and most beautiful.

Socialism cannot be established without fighting and finishing freedom.

It is, of course, possible that the majority may consent to destroy the freedom of the minority.

But still it is unfair and unjust.

Destruction of freedom can never be democratic.

Freedom of thought is the very life of democracy, it is its very soul.

But socialism cannot stand freedom of thought, because freedom of thought includes the freedom to support capitalism.

It is difficult for socialism to swallow that.

Socialism wants to destroy capitalism totally, and therefore it has to destroy freedom of thought.

And it is unthinkable how, after destroying the right of the individual to hold property and his freedom of thought, socialism can be considered democratic!

Let it be clearly understood that democracy is a value that goes with capitalism, and not with socialism.

And if democracy has to live, it can only live with capitalism, it cannot live with socialism.

Democracy is an inalienable part of the capitalist way of life, and as such it can only go with capitalism.

Similarly there are other values, we are not even aware of, which can be destroyed easily.

And they are already being destroyed.

The individual has the ultimate value.

But in the eyes of socialism it is not the individual but the collective, the crowd, that has value.

And socialism accepts that the individual can be sacrificed for the collective, the society.

The individual, in fact, has always been sacrificed in the name of great principles, and for the sake of big and high-sounding names.

They have been sacrificed sometimes for the sake of the nation and sometimes for the sake of religion.

But humanity refuses to learn from history.

When old altars disappear, they create new ones, and continues sacrificing the individual.

Democratic socialism is such a new altar.

If man has to learn anything from his history, the one lesson that is worth learning is this.

The individual cannot be sacrificed for anything.

Even the greatest of nations does not have the right to ask for the sacrifice of a single individual.

Even the greatest of humanity does not have the right to sacrifice the individual for its sake, because the individual is a living consciousness, and it is dangerous to sacrifice this living consciousness at the altar of a system or an organization, however great it be, because the system is a lifeless arrangement, a dead entity, and it is not proper to sacrifice a living person for the sake of a dead system.

But we have gotten into the habit of killing the individual, and even now we are seeking new avenues, new altars at which the individual can be sacrificed.

The new altar is democratic socialism.

But socialism is not democratic.

The socialism that is sought to be forced on us can never be democratic.

Sooner or later labor will increasingly become a non-essential factor in the production of goods.

Labor has a hand in the creation of wealth, but it has not been the central factor, the basic factor of production.

It does not play a pivotal role.

The basic factor, the pivotal factor is intelligence and talent.

It is an individuals intelligence that has discovered new dimensions of creating wealth.

As it is today, the capitalist system is far from adequate.

The system as it is needs to be tremendously improved and developed.

But the hysterical socialist war cry is coming very much in the way of its growth, and will not allow any growth if it has its way.

Soon millions of people will be out of work due to A.I. and robotic automation.

What will happen with the huge wealth that the automatic machines will produce?

The pattern of taxation will have to be radically altered.

Corporations using A.I. and robotic automation who produce more should pay higher taxes than individuals producing on a much smaller scale.

Which could bring in zero taxation on human labour at some point.

Then alone, wealth, abundant wealth, can be created.

Although it is very interesting to note that a great majority of mankind is wholly un-creative.

This majority is content with just eating, sleeping and immersed in online social media interactions.

Only a very small fraction of humanity has engaged itself in creativity and produced great results.

Take any field, be it poetry or great painting, production of wealth, science or spirituality, only a handful of men and women have attained to peaks of creativity.

Capitalism is an instrument for converting labour into wealth and if capitalism is allowed to grow unimpeded it can find ways to convert labour into wealth but the socialists say that they will hand over everything, the means of production and labour, to the state.

The irony is that the politicians are, and have always been, the most inefficient and worthless class of people in the world.

There is a reason for this.

It is that merit is valued in every walk of human life except in politics.

In politics alone merit has no value at all.

A person who has no qualifications whatsoever, enters politics.

Politics does not ask for any particular qualifications or specialized knowledge on the part of those who want to enter its arena.

It is a strange profession, which calls for nothing except that you can shout slogans and get some followers behind you.

Politics, which is the haven of criminals, psychopaths and narcissists, says that trade, commerce, industries, including all means of production, should be put in the hands of the state, which is another name for the politician.

So the politicians will manage and control the economic life of the country.

My vision is different.

It is that the politician can be prevented from ruining the human societies of the world if he is prevented from directly controlling the government and the administration of the state.

What we have at the moment is mobocracy, it is certainly not democracy.

It is all right for the people to choose their representatives who have merit for parliament, and it should be clearly the defined task of the majority party in parliament to find only the best people of merit to administer the various divisions and functions of the government.

They have to see to it that the selected ministers are fully qualified for their different jobs.

Then we will have meritocracy in the place of the mobocracy that we have.

Unless democracy merges into meritocracy, countries will remain in the hands of the ignorant, stupid politicians.

And until democracy is allied with meritocracy, democracy will continue to be the instrument of the downfall of humanity and its degradation, it can never be the instrument of its upliftment and glory.

The state, which is in the hands of the most incompetent, and unskilled people, will continue to ruin all the countries of the world.

Politicians want to monopolize everything and they want all power for themselves.

Besides political power, they want to monopolize economic power too.

They want trade and industries and everything in their hands.

Even science and religion are not spared, they want everything under the sun.

But if we allow this to happen, danger is guaranteed.

That is why I place this idea of meritocracy before you.

Meritocracy is not opposed to democracy, meritocracy is a concept of working through democracy.

And sooner or later, with the growth of understanding, the specialist is going to be significant in the whole world.

Then everything will be in the hands of the expert, the knowledgeable…

Source：Osho

www.osho.com